Learning To Cook....Round 1

The "Bountiful" Basket...

Well, you would think I would know how to cook amazing, homegrown dishes right, because I farm and grow and raise a lot of my food now? Well....WRONG...I am far from "Suzie Homemaker," think of me as more like her "wanna bee." I AM learning and things are starting to process in regards to a dash here and a pinch there but to be able to sit down and write out a menu plan and organize a grocery list is not what I like to do with my FREE time, which I don't get often! Cooking is like doing laundry to alot of people, it is my most dreaded task of the day....DINNER TIME!! 

Look at all these goodies!!! 

SO! I decided since it is fall/winter time and the garden is growing just some basic things like carrots, garlic, onions, peas, lettuce, broccoli and cabbage that I need some "fillers" during this time of the year. After consulting with a few friends and seeing example baskets that they had received I decided I wanted to try "Bountiful Baskets" which is pretty much a set $15 every other week, unless you want to take a drive to a further location then you can do every week. You get to pick just your basic basket or organic and then there are different add-ons you can pick from. You dont know all the exact items you will be receiving and you actually receive a few "different" or what I call "what on earth is this thing" surprises in your basket. To me not knowing what will be in my basket is rather fun and partly why I chose them. I feel this way I am not picking the same old boring produce and fruits and can venture out a little into a more creative cooking side that I have yet to dabble in my adulthood.

Once I figured out that my plan was a good one, I signed up for my first basket! Since it was a further location than what will be my normal a friend went and picked it up for me, along with hers. I had not only chosen the basket but also chose this round a "stew pack" and an "herb pack" to see what they consisted of and if the extra $$$ was worth it.

The total costs of the contents with add ons was ONLY $33.00....review the pictures for a minute and think of the normal costs in a grocery store...Pretty good don't you think? I do!

My Daughter is enjoying it...

POMEGRANATES: 

Some new things I have never tried before were pomegranates!!! Youtube is your best friend and it taught me the "proper" and easy way to open these! They are actually really yummy and we just eat the whole seed.

My baby boy enjoying his first pomegranates...

KALE:

And surprisingly, I had tried kale in the past but only in smoothies and I DID NOT LIKE IT! I about barfed! So when I got KALE in my basket I was thinking oh great...but figured I paid for it so I better at least give it a shot! I discovered that I LOVE Kale sauteed though and I did just eat a piece of it not cooked and it wasn't bad. It would be totally fine in a salad I think but we didn't go that route with this batch however, we had kale three times this week ha! The kids nor hubby noticed a difference in taste. So yay! I am excited to start planting Kale! 

Here is what we created....

(Kale sauteed in coconut oil and then added to our spaghetti sauce)

Next I created a potato dish...

 Potato Recipe 

(My Version of the Recipe: I used red skinned potatoes from our basket, kale and I added three cloves of garlic and johnny's seasoning salt)

Then Last but not least I created a sausage and cabbage dish: 

Kielbasa & Cabbage Recipe

In my basket I had cabbage as well, so I used that up and the rest of the kale, the garlic and onions. I sauteed the kale with the onions in this dish. It was so yum! 

Some other things I did with the items in my basket...
Parsley!

Started working on some Christmas items and I made these using my vanilla beans and peppermint herbs that I received in the basket!

I felt that I really learned alot this week in regards to finding new recipes, cooking and using the items we got in the basket! We got some misc things and I am going to make my normal chicken stir fry but these were the NEW things I learned! Was fun! Looking forward to round 2!

Buy Seeds Now and make your own items! 

Happy Cooking!